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Topic: The State of Other Mecha Games (Read 3916 times)

One mecha RPG game is Armageddon: 2089, which has a main rule book with a busy background, the fluff text in sidbars was 1980s style with green text on black background (but they chose dark green text), the page that describes how to set up a Merc unit has two different dollar amounts for how much your starting funds are, the weapon charts are split so names are on one page and some stats on another, some of the necessary details are so easy to miss (one of the options is 'tech support', without it your targeting software only provides half its bonuses), and most of the mecha in the main rulebook are well outside starting character budgets (starting character budget is $20M for 4 mecha, some of the mecha are $40M each, and one has a pair of weapons that each cost $50M). It is supposed to be D20 compatible, but the mecha are reclassified as Medium so it is difficult to bring it into another D20 game. There is no guideline as to what sort of enemy force should be built based on the strength of the PCs, plus the special abilities of the vehicles (and overall design line) is all custom to the game system as well.

It does have some nice ideas though about resistant armor but easy mechanics, capacitors just total extra power from the engine instead of anything fancier, though if you forget to mount the anchoring spikes your artillery Mech will fall over.

Fun quote from the book:"I need fire support, air support, and tech support, and I need it now!"

I love both aesthetics, so I'd hate to see Western mecha disappear. I don't want it to turn into anime either - Western mecha's greater focus on a gritty military aesthetic is fantastic & I'd never want to lose it. But if we refuse to engage with a new generation of mecha fans who naturally gravitated towards anime because it was the most readily available outlet for their interests, then we're just waiting for the inevitable end. I know asking the fan community to change their outlook is shouting at the wind, but I at least would like the industry figures to wake up before it's too late.

This got me thinking: What is status of Star Wars games? Universe has mecha and in my opinion AT-AT is the coolest mecha ever ("gritty military aesthetic"). Is there decent game that includes AT-AT and other walkers?

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You know what they say, don't you? About how us MechWarriors are the modern knights errant, how warfare has become civilized now that we have to abide by conventions and rules of war. Don't believe it.

From another topic:This got me thinking: What is status of Star Wars games? Universe has mecha and in my opinion AT-AT is the coolest mecha ever ("gritty military aesthetic"). Is there decent game that includes AT-AT and other walkers?

depends on how you feel about the current battlefront game.If you get into a battle such as the hoth attack on the imperial side you can pilot an atat once you aquire enough points Note this is a computer game

From another topic:This got me thinking: What is status of Star Wars games? Universe has mecha and in my opinion AT-AT is the coolest mecha ever ("gritty military aesthetic"). Is there decent game that includes AT-AT and other walkers?

no game that includes AT-AT's that i know of. FFG's Star Wars: Imperial Assault includes the AT-ST, as does its upcoming 32mm scale Star Wars: Legion game.

I hadn't thought about the western 'mech scene being inaccessible, but i suppose that's a strong point there. MWO's lackluster performance isn't helping much either. hopefully the single player game will draw people in?

The original Star Wars Miniatures collectible game from Wizards of the Coast had one, and rules to play it. As someone putting together as much Imperial as I could, I had it, along with some of the more interesting rares, like SandTrooper on Dewback and the Scout Trooper on Speeder.

The only thing I have against it is that it was based off the Star Wars d20 RPG of that day back in the early 2000s.

I don't like large linear dice. Prefer multiples of smaller and a curve to work around.

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It's your world. You can do anything you want in it. - Bob Ross

Every thought and device conceived by Satan and man must be explored and found wanting. - Donald Grey Barnhouse on the purpose of history and time.

So, I was inspired to get updated on the Arkrite Press site and dp9.com for more information on the HG RPG.

...I now feel Palladium would've been a better choice to write the rules. At least then we'd know a product would show up at some point.

Right now, the only publically available news is that Arkrite Press is working on Ruleset 0.3 but pay us to get access to the latest rules. As of March 10, 2016.

Yes. That's right.

According to the DP9 forum, the last time any information about the RPG project got released was back in August 2017, and even then the forum poster was told "No, we haven’t given up on the project. We just had some set backs. We’re working on putting another version together. Currently we’re adapting some of the rules to flow charts so that it’s that much faster to pick up and learn."

ilClan, RTT2, ComStar 1e, they've all got a better chance of coming out before DP9 and AP get even a .5e out for the RPG rules.

Hopefully this year will see the arrival of both the Giga-Robo and Mech Command RTS Board Games. The Utopia Faction for Heavy Gear will be coming out in plastic with Peace River and NuCoal hopefully following suit shortly after. (Highly excited for Peace River, myself.)

I just want say since 1985 , I love some of the other Mecha Games over the years. My two favorite is Robotech and Battletech . I' am backer of Robotech Tactics Rpg. Its been three years since Wave 1 delivered . I hate say Wave 2 not coming , I have been told by many people that cost never go down it always go up on everything. So the cost for Wave 2 is always going up not down. Palladium Books have email me every week there have been no mention of Robotech Rpg or Robotech Tactics for months now. Well at least CAV 2 will deliver in three months I hope.. The sad part is I have bounce on the internet and read about Robotech Tactics Rpg and Palladium Books . I have read everywhere. To the Mods I have been civil here.

Unfortunately, Mecha has never been a big part of Western culture at any level, and that includes RPGs. The biggest games have allways been Mechwarrior/Battletech and Robotech; the former was allways a wargame first and a RPG second and the latter had the advantage of being launched off a then-popular franchise at the peak of its power that managed to embed itself into pop culture conciousness. Save for Heavy Gear's brief rise to fame in the nineties, it's been a situation that's never really changed.

At the moment, the popular perception of Mecha in the west leans heavily towards the gritty/millitaryesque "western" asthetic, it's just that cultural issues (and a tendancy for Mecha games to be short lived) prevent companies form exploiting it.

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Author of BattleCorps stories Grand Theft Agro and Zero Signal

Whenever you use terms like 'fiat' or 'stupid pills', you render your argument invalid

Palladium Books just announced, via a RRT Kickstarter Backer e-mail, that they have lost the Robotech license from HG.

From Kevin Siembieda, "So it is with sadness and tremendous heartbreak that I announce that, despite our best efforts, we are unable to produce the Robotech® RPG Tactics Wave Two rewards. Moreover, after proudly carrying the legacy of Robotech® in the role-playing games medium for 30 years, our license has expired and is not being renewed."

Palladium Books just announced, via a RRT Kickstarter Backer e-mail, that they have lost the Robotech license from HG.

From Kevin Siembieda, "So it is with sadness and tremendous heartbreak that I announce that, despite our best efforts, we are unable to produce the Robotech® RPG Tactics Wave Two rewards. Moreover, after proudly carrying the legacy of Robotech® in the role-playing games medium for 30 years, our license has expired and is not being renewed."

Well fart.

Tactics controversies aside, the Robotech RPG was a big part of what kept the franchise alive during the long lean years in the nineties. I now have to wonder about the timing of this, given other matters.

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Author of BattleCorps stories Grand Theft Agro and Zero Signal

Whenever you use terms like 'fiat' or 'stupid pills', you render your argument invalid

Comics kept franchise going to well into late 90s until trigger happy HG pulled the plug to give it Antarctica Press which did lousy job of it.

A shame that Palladium Books got its license pulled. However, HG always been on rapid to self-destruction. I didn't like everything Palladium Books did with the franchise. REF book was nice new stuff, but wasn't enough i guess.

While I'm not sure if this will help clear things any, there was a frank posting in the RRT Kickstarter by Palladium's President about what the hell happened to RRT.From my best understanding, it seems delays with RRT from early on kept compounding and screwed Palladium. Maybe so much so, HG didn't want to deal with them anymore?

because we were so anxious to bring the game to you and the gaming community, we advertised in print and online that the game would be a Fall 2013 release. In retrospect, we probably should have waited until RRT was on the boat heading to America; but we were excited, so we moved ahead.

Folks around here sometimes question why CGL management doesn't offer specific release dates until just before a product is available on shelves. This is why. The damage caused by blowing (or in RTT's case, repeatedly blowing) release dates far exceeds the damage caused by some customer irritation at not getting a specific date to look forward to.

according to the writer i was collaborating with on a robotech RPG book, the latter. i only found out yesterday when he informed me of the whole thing. (was required to not tell anyone till an official announcement)

our book obviously was cancelled too. bummer, it had some good promise.

Please, please, please stop suggesting that CGL (or any other company) ever give its fans official license outside of the normal contracted work structure. It does not work, and it has lead to nothing but headaches for everyone that has tried it. Even BattleTech's Master Unit List, which was volunteer-built, was managed by someone from CGL who kept us all on-track.

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BattleTech is a huge house, it's not any one fan's or "type" of fans. If you need to relieve yourself, use the bathroom not another BattleTech fan. - nckestrel1st and 2nd Succession Wars are not happy times. - klarg1Check my Ogre Flickr page! https://flic.kr/s/aHsmcLnb7v and https://flic.kr/s/aHsksV83ZP

And you're also mischaracterizing the Kickstarter; it DID have a result. There was a Robotech Tactics game that shipped items - I should know, I bought a Gladiator/Spartan box to convert my buddy's middle finger flipping Archer from.

Yes, they were terrible items that looked like 1/100 model sprues shrunk down to 1/300, and yes, PG didn't ship EVERYTHING they said they would, but every Kickstarter has fine print saying that if not everything gets delivered the Kickstarter creator is not liable. A class action lawsuit would be pretty damn pointless on multiple levels.

And I say this as someone that dislikes Keven Seimbeda and absolutely despises both Palladium Games AND Harmony Gold.

Frankly, the reasons offered for why Robotech Tactics failed at least ARE PLAUSIBLE, unlike a lot of kickstarters which have raised a ton of money and then vanished with nary a trace.

And you're also mischaracterizing the Kickstarter; it DID have a result. There was a Robotech Tactics game that shipped items - I should know, I bought a Gladiator/Spartan box to convert my buddy's middle finger flipping Archer from.

Yes, they were terrible items that looked like 1/100 model sprues shrunk down to 1/300, and yes, PG didn't ship EVERYTHING they said they would, but every Kickstarter has fine print saying that if not everything gets delivered the Kickstarter creator is not liable. A class action lawsuit would be pretty damn pointless on multiple levels.

And I say this as someone that dislikes Keven Seimbeda and absolutely despises both Palladium Games AND Harmony Gold.

Frankly, the reasons offered for why Robotech Tactics failed at least ARE PLAUSIBLE, unlike a lot of kickstarters which have raised a ton of money and then vanished with nary a trace.

Maybe I'm in unique but I'm tempted to go for the swap; it would be nice if a reward was to be removed from their mailing list. I realize it won't happen because of the licensing issue but it would have been nice of them to provide the 3d files to let backers live out their dreams through 3d printing.

Palladium's involvement is why I didnt touch the kickstarter. Not to put to fine a point to it, but there's a certain pattern that Palladium products tend to follow, and this is following it to a T. I just feel bad for the new comers who were not aware of said pattern and got burned.

For other, more off beat mecha games, there's Mobile Frame Zero. It's a simple system based around building mecha out of lego. It's pretty fun and has the rules available for free, although they'd appreciate the donation.

Palladium's involvement is why I didnt touch the kickstarter. Not to put to fine a point to it, but there's a certain pattern that Palladium products tend to follow, and this is following it to a T. I just feel bad for the new comers who were not aware of said pattern and got burned.

For other, more off beat mecha games, there's Mobile Frame Zero. It's a simple system based around building mecha out of lego. It's pretty fun and has the rules available for free, although they'd appreciate the donation.

The really annoying thing is that most of the backers are long-term Palladium fans who've seen this kind of thing happen over and over, and yet they still buy into it.

One of the most interesting things I'VE seen related to Palladium recently is the Savage Worlds Rifts rules. Pinnacle Entertainment Games does deliver what it promises. If I do start earning as much money from this new job as I think I will, then I'll buy up what I don't already have of it.

Mobile Frame Zero does sound interesting. I remember when I was a kid I wrote a fleet-combat system where you built ships out of legos, and each block did something and was worth a certain amount of points, but my mom gave that away long with my childhood collection of legos.

I feel bad for the Robotech kickstarter backers. However I totally intend to feast on the game's corpse if it happens that a lot of product ends up in discount bins.

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Good news is the lab boys say the symptoms of asbestos poisoning show an immediate latency of 44.6 years. So if you're thirty or over you're laughing. Worst case scenario you miss out on a few rounds of canasta, plus you've forwarded the cause of science by three centuries. I punch those numbers into my calculator, it makes a happy face.

Mobile Frame Zero does sound interesting. I remember when I was a kid I wrote a fleet-combat system where you built ships out of legos, and each block did something and was worth a certain amount of points, but my mom gave that away long with my childhood collection of legos.

This thread prompted me to stop by my FLGS to see what kind of mini's were out there. All I saw was a few Battletech minis with a decent amount being 1/2 off. CAV bones which were all 1/2 off (ended up with a cheap Voodoo!). 1 RRT box set and a few of the smaller mini sets.